Monday, March 7, 2011

"Arizona Republic Censors The News; Hides Behind 1st Amendment!"

Good morning world,

Both the American political right and political left complain about media bias. When they do, most of the time it is the television media to which they refer. Liberals hate Fox news and conservatives detest the excessive liberal bent on MSNBC.

With the exception of the New York Times and Washington Post we rarely see the bias so clearly in the print media. Oh, one can guess, based on the preponderance of either conservative or liberal political columnists which way the newspaper's editorial stance is leaning.

Thanks to the Internet I have read a sizable number of big city newspapers and these readings have given me some insight as to the quality of the newspaper. However, I know of only one newspaper that, in my opinion, actually censors the news! That newspaper is the major newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona.

Owned by the liberal Gannett Corporation, parent of the USA Today paper, the Arizona Republic's editorial board has made the legalization of illegal immigrants their primary cause to champion. Since I moved to Phoenix in 2004 I have seen an unrelenting campaign by the Arizona Republic to present the illegal immigrant in the most positive light possible. The newspaper even refuses to acknowledge that they are here illegally and use the term "undocumented immigrant" in their news articles. Several times a year the Republic will trot out a series of human interest stories about the terrible plight of the illegal immigrant. They will report that illegal immigrants are instilled with fear of being caught, of their fear of Sheriff Joe Arpao (who conducts frequent illegal immigration sweeps), of the illegal's crippling poverty and try mightily to overlook the crippling effects that illegals have on our schools, our hospitals, our explosive social service costs and the soaring crime rates in Arizona.

Several of the Republic's articles have even gone as far as "justifying by explaining" why illegals must produce phony documents and steal the ID of American citizens in order to secure employment.

When Hispanics (including illegals, bearing the flags of Mexico) protested at the state capitol against SB 1070, the illegal immigrant law, the Republic ran banner headlines and covered the protest in exhausting detail. When, a few weeks later, the Tea Party staged a similar protest in support of the law it got scant coverage.

However, far more damaging has been the Republic's actual censorship of the news, lest the facts of a crime report threaten the validity of their own editorial position.

An objective read of the Arizona Republic over even a short period of time clearly shows that the Republic will report all the facts of a crime report if the criminal suspect is black or white. However, in the majority of instances where the criminal is Hispanic, the reporter will leave out that vital fact, neither mentioning name or ethnic description, nor whether the criminal is an illegal alien, even when the criminal is on the loose and poses a threat to the public! Oh, when the crime is heinous enough, the reporter will identify the arrested suspect by name, and in a few cases, they will report citizenship, but the vast majority of times the reporter will intentionally omit the name and write that information about the suspects is unknown at this time. Never mind that all of the major TV networks are reporting that the criminal was Hispanic and, in many instances, an illegal immigrant.

Note: I challenge you to read the online version of the Arizona Republic over a period of 30 days, analyze it objectively; see how many times a crime report fails to mention the hispanic criminal, see how many times the paper withholds the "comments" section to prevent the community from "venting" their frustrations at the many instances of illegal crime in all it's forms; ID theft, hit and run drivers, drive-by shootings, car and property thefts, etc. You'll be amazed that a paper could get by with such censorship of both the news and community comment!

I don't frankly know the manner of the paper's execution of this censorship; either they allow the paper's reporters to edit out key facts, or whether the local reporter is instructed to omit facts. It doesnt' matter. This censorship is ongoing with the clear blessing of the paper's management.

Perhaps, this goes on elsewhere, but here in Arizona, where the majority of her state's citizens are conservative, believe in protecting our borders, fed up with the staggering crime and social costs of illegals, the starkness of this paper's bias, and censorship, is astounding!

The Arizona Republic's online newspaper is even more galling; they will report on a controversial crime or human interest story, then many times withhold from the article's format, the traditional "comments" section because the preponderance of comment will be in opposition to their open borders/amnesty editorial goals. Hell, even their resident liberal cartoonist can be found pounding other commenters into the ground on critical comments made regarding his latest cartoon!

I was a daily reader of the newspaper my entire life. But, after seeing how the Republic tries to manage the content of the news, how they actually practice censorship as it suits them, I had to cancel my print subscription several years ago. I have explained my concerns to the newspaper in several letters to the editors as well as in written correspondence, to no avail. I was once a frequent commenter my self on their online newspaper but was subsequently "barred" from their site, though I had neither promoted hate speech nor used profanity; I simply presented facts that were in opposition to their editorial position on illegal immigration.

So what we have is an American newspaper taking an active role in censoring the news and cloaking itself for protection under it's 1st Amendment rights! And all in the name of championing their chief editorial goal; legalizing illegals! In doing so, this paper is setting a dangerous precedent. A free and responsible press is vital to a democratic republic. The Arizona Republic's abuse of these rights threatens to endanger the legitimacy of newspapers, and 1st Amendment rights everywhere.

So, until the editorial board of the Arizona Republic decides to reform, when I see a late-breaking story, I'll continue to discount their reports and turn to the local TV station to get the accurate reports.

Sad, Damned Sad.

Note: One of the lead stories in today's (Monday morning) lead off stories is reporting on illegals (they refer to them as "residents without authorization") in custody. Please note: no access to the "community comments" for this article! In doing so they are able to censor public community comment. What happened to OUR first amendment rights?